


sure of you

by LiveLaughLovex



Series: first to fight [2]
Category: The Code (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01, Pre-John "Abe" Abraham/Harper Li
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 16:29:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20696585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: It takes exactly two weeks after her return from SERE training for Harper's life to be put in danger again. Abe sits by her bedside in that German hospital until she finally wakes up. He likes to pretend he didn't spend have the time panicking internally at the thought of all that'd happened, of all the ways it might've been worse.





	sure of you

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Winnie the Pooh: Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind."Pooh!" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”

Harper came to in an unfamiliar hospital room, her eyes stinging as she slowly pried them open. She drew in a shaky breath, glancing around the space confusedly. The only familiar thing about any of it was Abe sitting in the chair next to her bed, his elbows against his knees and his chin resting in his palm, his eyes closed in a restless sleep.

“Abe,” she murmured, reaching across with the hand not connected to an IV to gently shake his shoulder. “Abe,” she whispered again, smiling gently when his head flew up, panicked blue eyes meeting hers. “Hey.”

“Hi,” he replied just as softly. “How are – are you okay? Should I – here, I’ll call the nurse.” He reached for the button, pausing when she caught his hand. “What is it? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” she promised. “I just – where am I?”

“Landstuhl. They brought you here after…” He hesitated. “What do you remember?”

“Uh, we were in Afghanistan,” she recalled. “A Marine had been accused of killing the wife of a local warlord. You went to talk to the suspect. I went with Captain Stoner to the village where it happened.” She shifted beneath the sheets, trying to recall what’d happened next. “There was an – an explosion. The Humvee in front of us, it must’ve driven over an IED. Our driver swerved to avoid it, and…” She trailed off. “After that, I’ve got no idea.”

“It’s okay,” he soothed. “That’s normal. You, uh… the Humvee you were in flipped, Harper,” he told her. “You were lucky, considering. A mild concussion, some internal bleeding, and a broken leg. Your cast is purple,” he added after a moment. “You mentioned once it was your favorite color, so…” He shrugged sheepishly.

“I…” She blinked rapidly, her fingers tightening around his. “What about everyone else? Are they – they’re okay, aren’t they?”

“Everyone in your Humvee is fine,” he promised her. “Their injuries were milder than yours, for the most part. They’re all out of the woods.”

“And what about the Marines in the other Humvee? The one that was escorting us?” Harper exhaled shakily at the look on his face. “Not so lucky, huh?”

“They’re all alive,” he promised her, squeezing her hand gently. “Their injuries are just – they’re more severe, that’s all.”

“What about the case?” she questioned. “What happened?”

“Don’t worry about the case. It’s been taken care of, all right? Don’t – there’s no reason for you to worry about it anymore, all right?”

“I need to focus on something other than what’s happening right now,” she returned sharply, her eyes glistening with tears as they met his. “I just – I can’t – I don’t know what I…” She trailed off, her breathing becoming more labored the longer she spoke.

“Hey, hey,” he murmured quickly, the hand not held in hers reaching for the call button. “You’re panicking, Harper. You need to breathe, okay? Just – breathe. Slowly, in and out. There you go.”

“I just – I can’t,” she tried to explain once more.

“You don’t need to explain anything to me, all right? We can talk about anything you want the second you leave this place, I promise, but right now… I think I should call the doctor. You’ve been awake for about ten minutes; he really should come in and check on you.”

“Can you stay?” she asked, hating how weak she felt in that moment. If he’d been anybody else, she never would’ve made the request, but he wasn’t just anybody. He was Abe. Her partner, her friend. She could trust him, and, when surrounded so completely by the unknown, something trustworthy was exactly what she needed.

“Yeah, of course,” he promised, squeezing her fingers as he reached for the call button. “I’m not going anywhere, okay?”

Somehow, the conviction in his tone – the promise his words held – calmed her nerves more effectively than any sedative the doctors could’ve administered ever would have.

The doctor came by five or so minutes later, a professional smile in place as he checked on each of her injuries and inquired as to how she was feeling. He left after fifteen minutes, assuring her she’d be released from the hospital before the end of the week, which, in her opinion, could not come soon enough.

-o-

“I don’t understand,” Harper grumbled five days later. “Why can’t I just walk out to the car? Maya’s got it pulled up right by the entrance, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, she does, but you have a broken leg and bruised ribs,” Abe reminded her, shouldering her bag and moving to stand behind the wheelchair. “Believe me, you’re going to be very relieved to not have to make it all the way out there on your own two – well, on your own foot,” he amended.

“You’re not being nice,” she mumbled, tilting her head back to smile up at him. “It’s not nice to tease me about being broken.”

“I am not teasing you,” he assured her. “That was a simple statement of fact. You’re not going to want to walk on that for the next six weeks.”

She nodded, shaking her head once and laughing humorlessly. “Two weeks,” she muttered. “I made it two weeks being back from SERE training before I managed to almost get myself blown up.”

“I once got shot twice in the same week,” he offered. “I mean, it was on the same day, but…”

“That doesn’t really comfort me,” she informed him. “Also, _how_?”

“I suck at ducking,” he offered amusedly.

“All right,” the nurse assigned to Harper that morning – Clarissa, her nametag read – greeted cheerfully, appearing in the doorway. “You ready to get out of here, Lieutenant Li?”

“You have no idea,” Harper sighed. “We’re getting pizza as soon as we get back to Quantico,” she informed Abe, tilting her head back once more to stare up at him. “I got it approved by Dr. Maxwell and everything.”

“Look at you, Miss Responsible,” he replied teasingly. “And absolutely. You’ve earned at least a dozen pizzas.”

“Captain Abraham is right,” Clarissa agreed, following them onto the elevator. “And you should absolutely hold him to that dozen-pizza promise,” she added conspiratorially.

“Oh, believe me, she will.” His smile was too fond for his words to hold any real irritation.

“Hey, you’re the one insisting I stay with you until my cast comes off,” Harper reminded him.

“Friends don’t let friends hobble around empty apartments with cracked ribs and only one good leg,” he returned promptly, having had the argument with her half a dozen times since he’d first made the suggestion three days earlier. “My mom is insisting on coming to take care of you; it only makes sense for everyone to stay at my place. There’s fewer stairs and more space.”

“He does make good points,” Clarissa offered as they exited the elevator.

“He always makes good points,” Harper sighed good-naturedly. “The downside of all my friends being lawyers, I suppose.”

“I take offense to that,” Abe informed her as he pushed her out the front door and out to the car idling by the curb, right where Maya had promised she’d be.

“You’ll get over it,” Harper assured him, wincing as they hit an uneven patch of concrete. “And I have serious concerns about you both being here. There _are_ still lawyers at Quantico, right?”

“You know, I think we left behind a few,” Maya assured her amusedly, smiling as she bent to hug the woman quickly. “There was no way I was going to let Abe do this by himself. I had this recurring nightmare that he might drop you or, like, accidently drive you through a window.”

“The United States government trusts me with guns and bombs. You’re aware of that, aren’t you?” Abe reminded her dryly. “I think I can handle not killing our friend while leaving the hospital.”

“Okay, so I just wanted to be here,” Maya admitted, opening the door and watching as Abe carefully helped Harper from the wheelchair and into her seat. “You’re okay, right? I’ve got the seat heaters turned on. There’s some blankets, some pillows…”

“I’m fine, Maya,” she promised the other woman softly. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, of course. Is she all set?” her friend asked the nurse.

“She’s ready to go,” Clarissa assured her. “Captain Abraham’s got her medication and anything else she might need between here and Virginia.”

“All right. Okay, let’s get you home,” Maya muttered under her breath, checking to make sure Harper was safely inside the vehicle before closing her door and circling around to the other side of the vehicle.

“My mother baked you a cake,” Abe commented, shaking his head as he glanced away from his phone screen to meet Harper’s eyes. “Hope you like chocolate.”

“Is that even a question?” Harper returned seriously. “Tell her thank you for me. You didn’t have to – I could’ve taken care of myself.”

“My mother doesn’t believe in letting people do that. So, you’re saving me an argument by agreeing so easily. Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

“You doing okay?” he asked, not for the first time that hour. “Do you need some of these pillows I’ve got back here? I think Maya may’ve bought out the local housewares store.”

“I didn’t,” Maya protested from the driver’s seat. “Their pillow section, that’s another story,” she added under her breath.

“I sympathize deeply with the people who choose to procreate with either one of you,” Harper informed them seriously. “Considering you’re this overprotective of a twenty-nine-year-old authorized by the government to carry a gun. I can’t imagine what you’ll be like with a baby.”

“You were in a Humvee that rolled over,” Abe reminded her unnecessarily. “Allow us our overprotectiveness, all right?”

“All right,” Harper agreed amusedly. “Carry on, then.”

-o-

Twelve hours later, they were once again on solid ground. Maya had to leave almost as soon as they landed to help Donovan with something regarding the last case she’d been involved with, so Abe and Harper headed directly from the airport to his apartment, stopping only to grab food and fill her prescriptions on their way.

“Mom’s going to be here first thing tomorrow,” he informed her, helping her into the apartment and closing the door behind them. “I guess she trusts me to take care of you until then, which is surprising.” He smirked when she rolled her eyes. “Pretty sure she loves you more than she does me.”

“That’s not true,” Harper denied. “I just bug her less, that’s all.”

“Very nice,” he laughed, helping her to the sofa with a string of muttered apologies when she winced.

“Broken ribs, remember? There’s no way to make this one hundred percent comfortable.” She smiled at him as she settled back against the couch cushions. “Thank you for letting me stay with you,” she added after a moment. “I know I’ve been teasing you, but – I don’t really want to be alone right now,” she admitted quietly.

“And I’d never want you to be alone right now,” he responded immediately, making sure she was situated before heading to the kitchen to plate the pizza and pour the soda they’d bought to go along with it into glasses. “Maya was telling me she saw there was some sort of _Law & Order _marathon somewhere,” he commented, handing her one of the plates and a glass of soda before reclaiming the seat next to her. “Don’t remember which it was, ’cause there’s about a million of them, but it’s an option.”

“Yeah,” Harper agreed, biting into the first slice of pizza on her plate. “Well, you know me. I’ll never turn down a procedural marathon.”

“So weird,” Abe muttered fondly, flipping to the channel nonetheless.

Halfway through, Harper’s mind began drifting away from what was happening on television and to what’d happened over the previous week instead. That wasn’t a good idea, obviously. It wasn’t even a minute later that her eyes were glistening with tears.

“You know, it’s always the person they trick you into thinking’s a perfect angel that actually – hey, are you okay?” he asked worriedly, reaching for the remote and pausing the show before turning to face her completely.

“I almost died,” she murmured, swiping at the lone tear running down her cheek. “I – I didn’t realize until just now, but you and Maya – you didn’t know if I was going to be okay. That’s why – it’s why neither of you wanted to leave.”

“Hey,” he soothed, setting aside their empty plates so he could move slightly closer to her. “You didn’t die, okay? You didn’t – you weren’t close to it, either. You had it right earlier, okay? We just worry way too much.” He smiled comfortingly at her. “You’re okay,” he reiterated softly.

“I can’t keep doing this,” she muttered. “I just – my parents, and you and – and everyone – I’m always worrying somebody.”

“We care about you,” he informed her seriously. “We’d worry if you were walking around in a bubble or – or locked away in a padded cell somewhere, too. It just comes with the territory.”

“Yeah,” she sniffled. “Maybe.” She glanced up at him. “Abe?”

“Yeah?” he questioned, his eyes still filled with concern as they met hers.

“I’m really glad I didn’t die.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, smiling brilliantly down at her. “I’m really glad you didn’t die, too.”


End file.
